https://kapuscinski.info/en/tags/2000/Recent content in 2000 on kapuscinski.infoHugoen-USMon, 01 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://kapuscinski.info/en/books/the-emperor/the-emperor-a-pamphlet-on-totalitarianism-review/Fri, 05 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000https://kapuscinski.info/en/books/the-emperor/the-emperor-a-pamphlet-on-totalitarianism-review/<p><strong>Author: Maciej Skórczewski. Date of publication: 2000-02-01</strong></p> <p>Ethiopia, mid-1970s. Night, silence, tension and fear palpable in the air. Somewhere in the remotest corner of Addis Ababa, in the quietest house, in deep conspiracy, an interview begins — or rather a long monologue of witnesses. People who, on account of what they did in the past, are condemned to constant hiding. Outside, a revolution is progressing. The country is gripped by civil war; a struggle for power is being waged. A decisive advantage is being gained by the mutinous army, the army that until recently served its ruler faithfully — the Emperor of Ethiopia, Haile Selassie I. It is the year 1975; the storm calms down, a second war begins — a war in which victors hunt the vanquished, a war in which death is delivered not by technology but by an &ldquo;ordinary&rdquo; denunciation by a neighbour. In such conspiratorial conditions we meet people who until recently served the highest authority in Ethiopia — Emperor Haile Selassie I. And so begins another and one of the finest books by Ryszard Kapuściński, entitled &ldquo;The Emperor&rdquo;. A book that has been universally recognised as a pamphlet on totalitarianism.</p>